{"id":188666,"date":"2025-12-17T18:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/188666\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T18:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:20:09","slug":"aussie-deal-boosts-freightways-but-nz-sharemarket-falls-market-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/188666\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie deal boosts Freightways but NZ sharemarket falls \u2013 Market close"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freightways\u2019 share price lifted 2.32% or 32c to $14.11 after it announced<\/a> it was expanding further into Australia through the A$71 million ($81m) acquisition of a Victoria-based express parcel and freight business.<\/p>\n

The business plans to acquire VT Freight Express (VTFE) on or after January 30, subject to conditions being met.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a huge acquisition for Freightways, who are worth over $2.5 billion, but it seems like a natural fit,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chief executive\u2019s come out and said it was like being at home, so the business seems very similar to their existing operations and a follow-on from their previous acquisition over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comvita also held its annual meeting today, as the company addressed shareholders after a particularly tough 2025.<\/p>\n

Two directors up for re-election faced strong opposition, only passing the resolutions by 59% and 53%.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecapitalisation remains the top priority for them. Their first-half update in February, that\u2019s where the rubber\u2019s going to hit the road for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, at market close it was the board\u2019s largest inhabitants that brought the indices down.<\/p>\n

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare\u2019s share price fell 1.72% or 65c to $37.25 after 470,794 shares changed hands on turnover worth $17.5m.<\/p>\n

Infratil followed suit, falling 2.50% or 28c to $10.90 after two million shares traded, worth $22.2m.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere gentailers Mercury Energy, Contact Energy and Meridian Energy fell late in the day.<\/p>\n

Mercury\u2019s share price fell 0.95% or 6c to $6.26, Contact eased 0.32% or 3c to $9.22 and Meridian dropped 3.04% or 17c to $5.43.<\/p>\n

The latest Global Dairy Trade auction was also held overnight Tuesday, with the price for whole milk powder falling for the ninth consecutive auction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a key farmgate driver, so that may weigh on the farmgate milk price payout and the New Zealand economy as a whole, given the amount that goes through the primary industry sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sullivan agreed investors would be looking to the release of gross domestic product (GDP) figures tomorrow, and a potential announcement from US President Trump after his administration had surrounded Venezuela with an armada.<\/p>\n

International news<\/p>\n

Wall Street stocks were little changed early Tuesday as markets absorbed US data pointing to a slower employment market, while Ford advanced despite announcing a US$19.5 billion ($33.77b) cost hit.<\/p>\n

The US unemployment rate climbed to 4.6% in November from 4.4% in September. The US economy lost 105,000 jobs in October but gained 64,000 in November.<\/p>\n

The data is the latest sign of a weakening job market.<\/p>\n

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.62% at 48,114.26.<\/p>\n

The broad-based S&P 500 was unchanged at 6815.34, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 0.2% to 23,093.20.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Additional reporting AFP<\/p>\n

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.<\/p>\n

Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Freightways\u2019 share price lifted 2.32% or 32c to $14.11 after it announced it was expanding further into Australia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14837,2937,1135,49395,138,3013,651,3468,28157,23966,15248,117853,6101,321,8461,1362,225,111,43,139,69,1125,5977],"class_list":["post-188666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-acquisition","tag-aussie","tag-australian","tag-boosts","tag-business","tag-but","tag-close","tag-deal","tag-dropped","tag-enough","tag-falls","tag-freightways","tag-good","tag-investors","tag-lift","tag-made","tag-market","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sharemarket","tag-which"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}